U.S. Ends Policy Of Denying Citizenship To Children Born Via IVF Or Surrogacy

The State Department will now approve U.S. citizenship for children born abroad to same-sex or heterosexual American parents via in vitro fertilization, surrogacy and by other assisted reproductive means.

Under the policy announced Tuesday, the child must be born abroad to married parents and at least one of the parents has to be a U.S. citizen. The child must have biological ties to at least one parent.

The State Department said this updated application of the Immigration and Nationality Act "takes into account the realities of modern families" and advances in assisted reproductive technology.

The new guidelines reverse a long-standing rule that considered children born outside the U.S. to a surrogate to be born "out of wedlock" even when the parents were married. The State Department also previously required that children born abroad have a genetic or gestational relationship to a U.S. citizen parent.

Under the old standard, several same-sex parents had filed lawsuits to have their children declared U.S. citizens. The Trump administration lost two federal cases in as many years over the issue.